Madness
by Yami Flo
Summary: Mad! Rekka was either mad... or incredibly stubborn. He tried to throw him into a volcano, goddamn it! Still, Shuten wanted revenge… a rematch of sort. Or what's happening in Shuten's head between episodes 3 and 8.


Character(s): Shuten

Warnings: Some spoilers for the first few episodes.

Summary: Mad! Rekka was either mad or incredibly determinate. He tried to throw him into a volcano, goddamn it! Still, Shuten wanted revenge… a rematch of sort. Or what's happening in Shuten's head between episodes 3 and 8.

Notes: The present story wasn't betaed, so there might be some mistakes; sorry if you spot any, but I hope you'll enjoy the fic anyway.

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**Madness**

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Mad! He was completely mas! Why else would Rekka have tried to send them both in the lava together?!

Shuten glanced at his still bandaged arm, grimacing.

How pitiful he must have looked when he had come back to the palace! His armor and subarmor were covered in soot and, under the metal, he had felt his skin burning, his body covered with injuries. His kusari-gama had been broken and needed to be reforged with whatever pieces he had managed to recover. The chain in itself was self regenerating, but the process was long, so long…

He himself was still recovering, feeling humiliated beyond words, and while his body took its sweet time healing, his rivals were out to gain their Master's favors!

What stroke of bad luck!

And all that because he went up against a half-grown kid who was probably half-mad, if not completely insane!

Of course, part of the situation was Shuten's own fault. He shouldn't have been so full of himself. But who could really blame him? Without his full armor, that the Oni Masho had managed to trick the whelp into removing, Rekka no Ryo was no longer a serious threat. Or at least Shuten had thought.

Why, he had taken his time humiliating the young boy, dragging him on the ground, making him fly around in the air, caught in the chain of his kusari-gama, prisoner and left to his tender mercies. The young samurai, his new toy he enjoyed mocking, had seemed unconscious, inoffensive.

And then, at the last moment, the toy hanging in the chains had caught him by surprise, grabbed him and threw them both over the edge and falling down the crater of the volcano!

Mad!... or incredibly determinate.

Never before had an enemy given Shuten so many troubles. Never before had anyone who faced him in battle tried to eliminate him in such a risky, suicidal move. Yes, Shuten was lucky to still be alive, and he knew it.

It was what made him so furious with Rekka no Ryo.

Furious, yes, and at the same time, he felt something else. A sort of intense excitement. The burning desire to face off against the red armor clad fighter. For yes, Rekka's move was unexpected and mad and all sort of crazy. Yes, he had been gifted in this particular fight with a rush of power coming from the heat of the lava, one of his armor's healing elements (a detail Shuten wasn't about to ever forget). Yes, Shuten had been far too arrogant. Yes, Rekka was young and wasn't very experimented in the noble art of war and battle.

But he had managed to fight Shuten off and even win the fight. He had given it all and almost killed one of Arago's Masho. He had showed a great courage, more luck than Shuten dared to contemplate and raw talent in the way of using his weapons. And that was without mentioning his stubbornness, which had served him well in the end, he supposed.

Better even, none of those qualities, courage, luck, stubbornness to oppose his Lord and their Empire, none of that seemed to weaken, and the talent Shuten had guessed was drawned out in the open a bit more after each fight. At least, if one considered Naaza's successive defeats.

A worthy adversary, someone who shouldn't be underestimated, that was what Rekka no Ryo was. See, that impudent boy hadn't hesitated one second in fighting off Naaza while blinded by one of the Doky Masho's sneaky attack. Oh, Naaza hadn't presented things under this angle, but Shuten had quickly caught on on the bravery needed to just rush off to protect someone or something while unable to see anything. From the Oni Masho's point of view, it wasn't a bad thing that Rekka had managed, one way or another, to get back his sight. Any future battle wouldn't have been half as interesting with that handicap.

Rekka… stubborn, stubborn kid… and powerful! Finally someone interesting to fight, after all these years!

Shuten wanted revenge. A revenge taken in a fair, straight fight, without anyone interfering, neither friends or foes. He glanced again at his bangaged arm, and grit his teeth, thinking about Naaza who was busy licking his own wounds, thinking about the still on the move Anubis who had left to confronte Kourin and stop him from awakening Kongo, and thinking of Rajura, who was already plotting something.

If Naaza's final defeat left him smirking, Shuten was a bit more worried that a success on Anubis' part gave him the right to pursue the rest of the Troopers, or that Rajura' plotting allowed him to gain the next chance to fight off the young warriors before Shuten was able to take to the field again. And that wasn't good. As much as he disliked his fellow Masho, he knew they only needed one good hit to turn the tables to their advantages.

Shuten wanted to fight Rekka again, and the other Troopers too of course, but Rekka especially. He wanted to show them all he was the greatest, the best… even if the five whelps had potential, he had to give them that.

He wanted that fight.

He just hoped he would have the chance to have it.

**End**


End file.
